Project: 2.2.2

Saving the swift parrot

The critically endangered swift parrot is a hollow-nesting migratory bird which winters in south-eastern mainland Australia and migrates to Tasmania to
breed in summer. Over the year they fly long distances to find food (nectar from eucalypt flowers) and depend on suitable conditions across multiple,
distant locations. It is estimated that there are now less than 2000 birds and numbers are continuing to decline.

Managing the species is challenging because their movements and breeding location change each year in response to highly variable environmental conditions,
which affect eucalypt flowering.

In Tasmania their breeding habitat has been dramatically reduced, degraded and fragmented by vegetation clearance, land use change and logging since European
settlement, in particular this has dramatically reduced the number of hollow-bearing trees.

Prior research by the team has also discovered that sugar gliders, which are not native to Tasmania, are eating nesting mothers, chicks and eggs, which
is accelerating the catastrophic decline of the species. Up to half of the nesting parrots can be eaten by sugar gliders every year.

How will the research help?

This project will reduce the risk of imminent extinction of Swift parrots by addressing the dual problems of:

severe predation by introduced sugar gliders during nesting; and

chronically low rates of population recruitment.

The project is investigating:

factors affecting reproductive success

causes of nest failure

techniques for mitigating sugar glider predation

nest parasites

food resources availability.

In the short term, a lack of tree hollows can be addressed with nest boxes. The team has already spent substantial time in developing and refining
nest box designs to support Swift parrot breeding. They have also developed a solar powered device that can be added to nest boxes to keep gliders
out of nest boxes overnight.

The migratory nature of the bird has made it difficult to determine where to install the nest-boxes in time for the commencement of breeding. The team
is conducting the first ever study of factors predicting breeding location, which will allow locations to be identified weeks prior to parrots
arriving.

The team is also investigating factors affecting reproductive success and where breeding swift parrots search for food while nesting. In combination
this research will identify and refine the best techniques to increase survival and reproductive success.

A young swift parrot. Photo: ANU

What research activities are being undertaken?

Planned research activities include:

Surveying of over 1000 sites in Tasmania to investigate how annual swift parrots nest site selection is affected by patchy and unpredictable tree
flowering.

Monitoring of swift parrot site use and tree flowering patterns across Tasmania to predict likely breeding areas each year for research and conservation
actions.

Mapping sugar glider predation risk areas.

Deploying nest boxes each year in likely breeding habitat, focusing effort on offshore islands with low risk of predation.